Comrade Courant Culture Critic

The Dark Half (1993): King's Doppelgänger Nightmare Gets a Gothic Makeover "A slow-burn psychological horror that prioritizes atmosphere over scares, anchored by Romero's eye for the grotesque." — 3/5 Stars The Dark Half (1993) review: In an era when studios are finally mining Stephen King’s deeper cuts for fresh horror, it’s worth revisiting George A. Romero’s The Dark Half —a film that was ahead of its time in its psychological ambition, if not always in its pacing. Based on King’s 1989 novel (itself a thinly veiled reflection of his “Richard Bachman” pseudonym), the film explores the terrifying notion that the darkest parts of our creativity might not stay on the page. It’s a gothic, atmospheric, and deeply strange work—flawed, yes, but genuinely haunting in its best moments. Timothy Hutton stars as Thad Beaumont, a literary novelist whose violent crime thriller...

Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023): A Lovecraftian Missed Opportunity Wrapped in Decent Animation "A cursed prophecy, a bat-shaped god, and a film that should’ve been far more terrifying." — 3/5 Stars Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023) arrives with a tantalizing premise: a 1920s Batman, cosmic horror, and a Gotham City built on occult bloodlines. Based on the cult-favorite Elseworlds comic of the same name, the film leans hard into H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos—specifically echoing The Doom That Came to Sarnath —and reimagines Bruce Wayne not as a detective, but as a reluctant avatar of primordial dread. It’s certainly better than most straight-to-video animated superhero fare —more ambitious in scope, more atmospheric in tone. But let’s be clear: it doesn’t hold a candle to DC’s animated high-water marks like Batman: Under the Red Hood , The Killing Joke , or Gotham by Gaslight...